Jackie’s New Year blog 2018

Girlguiding Nottinghamshire’s County Commissioner, Jackie Brocklehurst, reflects on the last 12 months….

As I sit here on New Year’s eve reflecting on the last 12 months I have so much to be thankful for and can celebrate what a wonderful year 2017 has been. I start with the most important thing – my family. In 2017 my son graduated as an officer in the RAF, our first grandchild was born, we celebrated my daughter’s wedding and both me and my husband started new jobs.

Girlguiding has always been a large part of my life and 2017 brought the first full 12-month period of being your county commissioner. This is a role which I am tremendously proud to hold and every day it brings me new challenges and opportunities. It’s not an easy role, but now I’m 19 months in, I’m starting to understand it more and work out what our priorities are as a County. Having such wonderful county and office teams has made it all the more manageable and enjoyable.

So, what have been our highlights? As usual the year kicked off with a New Leaders Training Day, where we saw new volunteers full of ideas and with plenty of energy to take Girlguiding Nottinghamshire forward. This was followed by our Commissioner and County Day – an opportunity to meet such valuable volunteers who keep the divisions and districts going through their shear dedication and enthusiasm.

Together we’ve achieved so much, and here’s a round up:

In March 2017 we launched our 5-year strategy for Girlguiding Nottinghamshire

We hosted a large scale event to celebrate the Rainbows 30th Birthday at Wheelgate Park

We started organising the MegaMoot 2018 camp with Nottinghamshire Scouts

We created a division commissioner support plan to ensure our commissioners have the valuable support they need

We presented 67 county awards to Nottinghamshire members

We continue to work with national and local organisations to promote Girlguiding and build on our partnerships. These include MacMillan, Nottingham Hospitals Charity, Framework, Race for Life, Science in the Park, Operation Orphan and Shoe Aid.

We embraced a new membership system

35 girls have been selected to represent Girlguiding on international trips in 2018

Our properties have gone from strength to strength, with a lovely Flower Festival at Hanson House, a new building for Elton (due to be opened formally in March 2018), bookings up at Roughbreck and a lovely new kitchen at our offices in Carlton.

Myself and my assistants Kayleigh and Kirstie, have travelled the length and breadth of the county visiting units, districts and divisions. We’ve had the most wonderful time and enjoyed meeting so many of you.

I now look forward to 2018 and volunteering with you to ensure Girlguiding Nottinghamshire continues to grow and provide amazing opportunities and adventures for girls. Together we will deliver Year Two of our strategy and embrace the changes ahead. Time is so precious to all of us and our families are important. We must consider new ways of delivering great guiding. Flexible roles need to be developed to encourage more volunteers and to help ease the load. New programmes, a new GO system and Girlguiding policies and procedures are there for the benefit of the girls and ourselves so need to be embraced.

Girlguiding Nottinghamshire is the largest organisation for girls in the county. Lets work together to ensure every girl who wishes to experience Girlguiding in Nottinghamshire can do so. I don’t need to tell you the benefits of Girlguiding to the girl, but remember, there must be benefits to you as volunteers too.

For me the benefits are being amongst amazing volunteers, being part of great teamwork, meeting so many young people, and seeing girls develop into confident young women and challenging themselves to do activities and adventures they will never forget.

I’d like to wish each and every one of you a very Happy New Year and look forward to meeting many more of you at Mega Moot, County Day or perhaps at a training.